A Palestinian refugee in Denmark has been committed to psychiatric treatment for possession by evil spirits, known as jinn. Having been treated with Quranic incantations, he sees no need for further treatment, but psychiatrists believe medication is needed. This film explores the crossroads of Muslim exorcism and psychiatric medicine, which, despite vast differences, share a view of healing as faith in an external non-human agency. Read more

]]>http://der.org/community/new-releases/new-releases-january-2015/feed0http://der.org/community/new-releases/new-releases-january-2015http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DerNews/~3/dELyF2plzNA/new-releases-january-2015DER goes to the International Intangible Heritage Film Festivalhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DER_RSS/~3/HndIOqinmvE/der-goes-to-the-international-intangible-heritage-film-festival
http://der.org/community/news/der-goes-to-the-international-intangible-heritage-film-festival#commentsFri, 16 Jan 2015 21:31:03 +0000http://der.org/community/?p=2496In October, I had the pleasure of participating in the International Intangible Heritage Film Festival (IIHFF) and Conference, held in Jeonju, South Korea. The festival launched the opening of the National Intangible Heritage Center, an elegant complex of buildings and outdoor spaces designed for creation, performance and preservation of various forms of Intangible Heritage, marking South Korea’s commitment to its own cultural heritage, as well as the heritage of others.

Gods and Kings, Unity Through Culture, Returning Souls, and Summer Pasture were some of the DER titles screened as part of the thoughtfully curated program that explored diverse modes for documenting intangible heritage, indigenous preservation and revitalization efforts, and the complex relationship between tangible and intangible cultural forms. A special program celebrated Robert Gardner’s poetic visual anthropology works.

The inaugural IIHFF conference brought together academics, archivists, and film festival organizers to focus on “Audiovisual Augmentation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.” Other international guests included Hu Tai-Li from the Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival, Ariane Jevaco from the Jean Rouch International Film Festival in Paris, and anthropologist and filmmaker Itushi Kawase from the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan. Building on the festival’s theme of a living heritage, I made a case for viewing the films as “living resources” and offered examples of the repatriation and indigenous use and re-use of anthropological films and photographs. See here for the slides and text of my presentation on The Work of Archiving in the Era of Digital Reproduction: Notes from an Emerging Archive.

Jeonju – known for the richness of its culinary and crafts traditions, from the origins of bibimbop to the refinement of papermaking – was the perfect setting for this stimulating investigation of Intangible Heritage and its relationship to ethnographic film. I look forward to seeing how the Center and the Film Festival develop and to greater international collaboration and scholarship.

“People can make a difference. By working together from the grassroots, as a collective community, we can make a change. Even though my films deal with a variety of different issues the common theme in all of them is grassroots empowerment – that we as citizens, if we come together in a collective way, can make a difference. And so, I’m really trying to, I guess, inspire people to be engaged citizens.”

— Robbie Leppzer

Recently, Executive Director Alice Apley sat down here at the DER office with filmmaker Robbie Leppzer to discuss the Turning Tide Collection. Released as six individual DVDs, this collection spans thirty years of Leppzer’s work documenting social activism at home and abroad.

In sixteen chapters containing four and a half hours of materials, Tracks Across Sand offers a unique chance to travel to the edge of the Kalahari, to a struggle for indigenous rights, and into the heart of contemporary South Africa. Driven from their lands, forced into a life of destitution, and denied the right even to speak their own languages, the ‡Khomani San fight for their heritage. Read more

In many Tibetan communities, the loss of Tibetan language has reached a crisis level. An elder generation is passing away, leaving behind fewer young Tibetans can understand their own native language. A rare glimpse at a pivotal moment of cultural and linguistic transition among Tibetans and Muslims in Hualong County, a remote community in Amdo, Tibet, part of what is now eastern Qinghai Province, China. Read more

]]>http://der.org/community/new-releases/new-releases-november-2014/feed0http://der.org/community/new-releases/new-releases-november-2014http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DerNews/~3/VxsmayS_K4g/new-releases-november-2014Flashback: DER in National Geographic’s “Bushmen of the Kalahari” (1974)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DER_RSS/~3/fPPuvZ3hzwg/flashback-der-in-national-geographics-bushmen-of-the-kalahari-1974
http://der.org/community/news/flashback-der-in-national-geographics-bushmen-of-the-kalahari-1974#commentsThu, 20 Nov 2014 16:59:20 +0000http://der.org/community/?p=2485Here is an excerpt from the National Geographic Society television special Bushmen of the Kalahari (1974), featuring John Marshall and associates at the old DER office in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Original air date: May 17th, 1974.

Fun fact: This special was narrated by Leslie Nielsen and written by a man named Bud Wiser.

Power to the Pedals portrays the transformative vision and extraordinary efforts of Wenzday Jane, a young woman whose mechanical skills and innovative actions are reshaping her community. Shot in an intimate, lyrical style, the film follows Wenzday as she builds an organization of riders and cargo bicycles that work in agriculture and food delivery, composting, recycling and waste-hauling — and community building. Read more

Shot over the course of 20 years, this film traces the life of Sarthak, an Indian man who juggles his desire to be a poet with the practicalities of raising a family. Still residing in his childhood home with his mother, wife, and young son, he sleeps surrounded by books. As Sarthak leads us through the cultural consciousness of Kolkata, his experiences raise questions about the choices we make and how art and life inform one another. Read more

]]>http://der.org/community/new-releases/new-releases-september-2014/feed0http://der.org/community/new-releases/new-releases-september-2014http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DerNews/~3/OJYFfiejRbQ/new-releases-september-2014New Releases – August 2014 – Turning Tide: The Robbie Leppzer Collectionhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DER_RSS/~3/jWSc_a5jC4s/turning-tide-the-robbie-leppzer-collection
http://der.org/community/new-releases/turning-tide-the-robbie-leppzer-collection#commentsWed, 23 Jul 2014 21:17:05 +0000http://der.org/community/?p=2365Robbie Leppzer is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose works capture the experiences of ordinary people grappling with critical issues of our time, such as war and peace, environmental protection, human rights, and cross-cultural understanding. His film, video, and public radio works remain a valuable historical record of the 20th and 21st Centuries, and encapsulate the experience of grassroots activism from a cross-section of races, religions, and ages. Read more .
Feature Length Films

Filmed in a cinema-verité style over a five-year period, An Act of Conscience is a feature-length documentary chronicles the story of a family in western Massachusetts whose home was seized by federal marshals and IRS agents after they publicly refused to pay federal taxes as a protest against war and military spending. Read more

A chronicle of the early protests against the U.S. invasion and military occupation of Iraq as seen through a diverse group of individuals, ranging in age from 14 to 75, including teenagers, college students, war veterans, teachers, clergy, and community activists, as they take part in vigils, marches, theater performances, and civil disobedience sit-ins. Read more

Seabrook 1977 is a chronicle of a seminal event of 1970sʼ environmental activism when 1,414 people were arrested in a mass civil disobedience protest at a nuclear power plant under construction in Seabrook, New Hampshire and jailed en masse in National Guard armories for two weeks. Read more